Kenya Airways Sacks about 22 of its Nigerian Workers

In an unexpected move that has infuriated aviation union workers who have vowed to disrupt the airline’s operations in the country from Monday (yesterday), Kenya Airways over the weekend sacked about 22 of its Nigerian workers, representing 86.4 percent of its Nigerian workers.

A source close to the airline told Daily Sun that the affected staff were issued their disengagement letters over the weekend at the airline’s office in Lagos in the presence of policemen engaged by the airline to forestall any violent protest or possible breakdown of law and order by the sacked workers.

According to the source, only four Nigerian staff are at present retained by the management of the airline after the retrenchment exercise that affected 22 workers across board. The affected staff were only given four weeks wages on disengagement by the management, and this is one of the reasons that the industry unions are annoyed with the airline.

General Secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Mr Olayinka Abioye on Sunday confirmed the sack of the 22 workers. According to him, the sack of the workers is illegal especially at a time the airline management and labour had reached an agreement to implement some of the reviewed conditions of service for the workers. He revealed the Nigerian staff were being owed about 26 months monetary benefits. They claimed that they won’t be able to pay all, but after consultations, we agreed for 16 months to be paid the workers.